Beginning

30 And you shall make an altar to burn incense upon; of acacia wood you shall make it.

² A cubit shall be its length and a cubit its breadth; its top shall be square and it shall be two cubits high. Its horns shall be of one piece with it.

³ And you shall overlay it with pure gold, its top and its sides round about and its horns, and you shall make a crown (a rim or molding) of gold around it.

⁴ You shall make two golden rings under the rim of it, on the two ribs on the two opposite sides of it; and they shall be holders for the poles with which to carry it.

⁵ And you shall make the poles of acacia wood, overlaid with gold.

⁶ You shall put the altar [of incense] in front and outside of the veil that screens the ark of the Testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the Testimony (the Law, the tables of stone), where I will meet with you.

⁷ And Aaron shall burn on it incense of sweet spices; every morning when he trims and fills the lamps he shall burn it.^(A)

⁸ And when Aaron lights the lamps in the evening, he shall burn it, a perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generations.

⁹ You shall offer no unholy incense on the altar nor burnt sacrifice nor cereal offering; and you shall pour no libation (drink offering) on it.

¹⁰ Aaron shall make atonement upon the horns of it once a year; with the blood of the sin offering of atonement once in the year shall he make atonement upon and for it throughout your generations. It is most holy to the Lord.

¹¹ And the Lord said to Moses,

¹² When you take the census of the Israelites, every man shall give a ransom for himself to the Lord when you number them, that no plague may fall upon them when you number them.^(B)

¹³ This is what everyone shall give as he joins those already numbered: a half shekel, in terms of the sanctuary shekel, a shekel being twenty gerahs; a half shekel as an offering to the Lord.

¹⁴ Everyone from twenty years old and upward, as he joins those already numbered, shall give this offering to the Lord.^(C)

¹⁵ The rich shall not give more and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel when [you] give this offering to the Lord to make atonement for yourselves.

¹⁶ And you shall take the atonement money of the Israelites and use it [exclusively] for the service of the Tent of Meeting, that it may bring the Israelites to remembrance before the Lord, to make atonement for yourselves.

¹⁷ And the Lord said to Moses,

¹⁸ You shall also make a laver or large basin of bronze, and its base of bronze, for washing; and you shall put it [outside in the court] between the Tent of Meeting and the altar [of burnt offering], and you shall put water in it;

¹⁹ There Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet.^(D)

²⁰ When they go into the Tent of Meeting, they shall wash with water, that they die not; or when they come near to the altar to minister, to burn an offering made by fire to the Lord,^(E)

²¹ So they shall wash their hands and their feet, lest they die; it shall be a perpetual statute for [Aaron] and his descendants throughout their generations.

²² Moreover, the Lord said to Moses,

²³ Take the best spices: of liquid myrrh 500 shekels, of sweet-scented cinnamon half as much, 250 shekels, of fragrant calamus 250 shekels,

²⁴ And of cassia 500 shekels, in terms of the sanctuary shekel, and of olive oil a hin.

²⁵ And you shall make of these a holy anointing oil, a perfume compounded after the art of the perfumer; it shall be a sacred anointing oil.

²⁶ And you shall anoint the Tent of Meeting with it, and the ark of the Testimony,

²⁷ And the [showbread] table and all its utensils, and the lampstand and its utensils, and the altar of incense,

²⁸ And the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the laver [for cleansing] and its base.

²⁹ You shall sanctify (separate) them, that they may be most holy; whoever and whatever touches them must be holy (set apart to God).

³⁰ And you shall anoint Aaron and his sons and sanctify (separate) them, that they may minister to Me as priests.

³¹ And say to the Israelites, This is a holy anointing oil [symbol of the Holy Spirit], sacred to Me alone throughout your generations.^(F)

³² It shall not be poured upon a layman’s body, nor shall you make any other like it in composition; it is holy, and you shall hold it sacred.

³³ Whoever compounds any like it or puts any of it upon an outsider shall be cut off from his people.

³⁴ Then the Lord said to Moses, Take sweet spices—stacte, onycha, and galbanum, sweet spices with pure frankincense, an equal amount of each—

³⁵ And make of them incense, a perfume after the perfumer’s art, seasoned with salt and mixed, pure and sacred.

³⁶ You shall beat some of it very small and put some of it before the Testimony in the Tent of Meeting, where I will meet with you; it shall be to you most holy.

³⁷ And the incense which you shall make according to its composition you shall not make for yourselves; it shall be to you holy to the Lord.

³⁸ Whoever makes any like it for perfume shall be cut off from his people.

31 And the Lord said to Moses,

² See, I have called by name Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah.

³ And I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom and ability, in understanding and intelligence, and in knowledge, and in all kinds of craftsmanship,

⁴ To devise skillful works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in bronze,

⁵ And in cutting of stones for setting, and in carving of wood, to work in all kinds of craftsmanship.

⁶ And behold, I have appointed with him Aholiab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan; and to all who are wisehearted I have given wisdom and ability to make all that I have commanded you:

⁷ The Tent of Meeting, the ark of the Testimony, the mercy seat that is on it, all the furnishings of the tent—

⁸ The table [of the showbread] and its utensils, the pure lampstand with all its utensils, the altar of incense,

⁹ The altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, the laver and its base—

¹⁰ The finely worked garments, the holy garments for Aaron the [high] priest and for his sons to minister as priests,

¹¹ And the anointing oil and incense of sweet spices for the Holy Place. According to all that I have commanded you shall they do.

¹² And the Lord said to Moses,

¹³ Say to the Israelites, Truly you shall keep My Sabbaths, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you [set you apart for Myself].

¹⁴ You shall keep the Sabbath therefore, for it is holy to you; everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does work on the Sabbath shall be cut off from among his people.

¹⁵ Six days may work be done, but the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, sacred to the Lord; whoever does work on the Sabbath day shall surely be put to death.

¹⁶ Wherefore the Israelites shall keep the Sabbath to observe it throughout their generations, a perpetual covenant.

¹⁷ It is a sign between Me and the Israelites forever; for in six days the Lord made the heavens and earth, and on the seventh day He ceased and was refreshed.

¹⁸ And He gave to Moses, when He had ceased communing with him on Mount Sinai, the two tables of the Testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.

32 When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, [they] gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, Up, make us gods to go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.

² So Aaron replied, Take the gold rings from the ears of your wives, your sons, and daughters, and bring them to me.

³ So all the people took the gold rings from their ears and brought them to Aaron.

⁴ And he received the gold at their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made it a molten calf; and they said, These are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt!

⁵ And when Aaron saw the molten calf, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.

⁶ And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.

⁷ The Lord said to Moses, Go down, for your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves;

⁸ They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them; they have made them a molten calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, These are your gods, O Israel, that brought you up out of the land of Egypt!

⁹ And the Lord said to Moses, I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people;

¹⁰ Now therefore let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and that I may destroy them; but I will make of you a great nation.

¹¹ But Moses besought the Lord his God, and said, Lord, why does Your wrath blaze hot against Your people, whom You have brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand?

¹² Why should the Egyptians say, For evil He brought them forth, to slay them in the mountains and consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from Your fierce wrath, and change Your mind concerning this evil against Your people.

¹³ [Earnestly] remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants, to whom You swore by Your own self and said to them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give to your seed, and they shall inherit it forever.

¹⁴ Then the Lord turned from the evil which He had thought to do to His people.

¹⁵ And Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tables of the Testimony in his hand, tables or tablets that were written on both sides.

¹⁶ The tables were the work of God; the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables.

¹⁷ And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, There is a noise of war in the camp.

¹⁸ But Moses said, It is not the sound of shouting for victory, neither is it the sound of the cry of the defeated, but the sound of singing that I hear.

¹⁹ And as soon as he came near to the camp he saw the calf and the dancing. And Moses’ anger blazed hot and he cast the tables out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain.

²⁰ And he took the calf they had made and burned it in the fire, and ground it to powder and scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it.

²¹ And Moses said to Aaron, What did this people do to you, that you have brought so great a sin upon them?

²² And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my lord blaze hot; you know the people, that they are set on evil.

²³ For they said to me, Make us gods which shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.

²⁴ I said to them, Those who have any gold, let them take it off. So they gave it to me; then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf.

²⁵ And when Moses saw that the people were unruly and unrestrained (for Aaron had let them get out of control, so that they were a derision and object of shame among their enemies),

²⁶ Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Whoever is on the Lord’s side, let him come to me. And all the Levites [the priestly tribe] gathered together to him.

²⁷ And he said to them, Thus says the Lord God of Israel, Every man put his sword on his side and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.

²⁸ And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses; and there fell of the people that day about 3000 men.

²⁹ And Moses said [to the Levites, By your obedience to God’s command] you have consecrated yourselves today [as priests] to the Lord, each man [at the cost of being] against his own son and his own brother, that the Lord may restore and bestow His blessing upon you this day.

³⁰ The next day Moses said to the people, You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.

³¹ So Moses returned to the Lord, and said, Oh, these people have sinned a great sin and have made themselves gods of gold!

³² Yet now, if You will forgive their sin—and if not, blot me, I pray You, out of Your book which You have written!

³³ But the Lord said to Moses, Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him [not you] out of My book.^(G)

³⁴ But now go, lead the people to the place of which I have told you. Behold, My ^[a]Angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I punish I will visit their sin upon them!^(H)

³⁵ And the Lord sent a plague upon the people because they made the calf which Aaron fashioned for them.